Click here to watch Part 3 on youtube, or just click below to watch it here on the blog.

The first part of the speech is about the theme of the conference I was speaking on. (The conference was Asia Professional Speakers Singapore (APSS) Annual Convention and the theme of the conference was “Enterprise”.

As a speaker you should always connect your speech to the theme of the conference, and since I was the opening keynote speaker I found it relevant to speak on “enterprise” for the first 14 minutes of my speech to “anchor” the theme of the conference, before going into the theme of my own speech – which was on How to be a global speaker.

One of the best feedback you can get from a speech is not from the audience, but from your fellow speakers during a conference. If your speech is being referenced by the other speakers it is a statement that your speech was so important and relevant to the conference you are speaking at that the other speakers decided to reference back to your speech to make their point.

Today when I spoke at the Annual Convention of Asia Professional Speakers, Singapore (APSS) an association for professional speakers in Singapore, and got a great example of this happening.

I shared the stage with some of the best professional speakers in Asia (and some flown in from USA, Europe and Australia too.)

It was an awesome conference which I had the honor of opening with the first full length keynote of the day.

During the rest of the conference I would have 8 of the other speakers in one way or another refer back to my speech. (One even had a picture of me in his PowerPoint, another had, last minute, changed her presentation to add one new slide with a quote from my speech.)

So how did I do that? Well, there is no way you can “make” that happen, but you can increase the changes of it happening.

What I did do:

By studying the conference program to understand what the other speakers would be speaking on, to make sure I was in-line with the theme of the conference.

To contact (before the conference and in the networking before the conference) the other speakers and specifically ask them what their main take-aways would be during their speech (to be able to even better position my speech to fit well with theirs.)

When you close a conference you can gain huge extra bonus points with the audience by looking at your speaking slot as not just a slot to give a speech, but to also take the opportunity to summarise the whole conference.

If you are opening a conference you can gain similar bonus points with the audience by making sure that your speech sets the stage not only for your message, but for the whole conference that you have been given the privileged to open.

When your speech is being referenced during the whole conference your message is amplified by the other speakers – giving the audience a feeling that your speech “lingers” around the whole day.

That is powerful.

So make an effort to understand what the other speakers are going to speak about so that you can give a speech that gets referenced during the whole conference.

PS. The best part of speaking to an audience that consists of other professional speakers is that they are one of the nicest audiences that you can have. They really, really want to learn and they truly appreciate the art of speaking. And here they are kind enough to honor my speech with a standing ovation, something that is always nice to receive.

But more specifically the answer is: Speak more at global conferences.

Because at a global conference there will be people from all over the world in the audience, so if you do a great job on the stage then you will have people from all over the world come up to you after the speech to want to book you for their home market.

Which today was a great example of.

Because today 1300 Entrepreneurs from 130 countries gathered in Bangkok, Thailand for the Global Learning Conference of Entrepreneurs Organisation – a global organisation for entrepreneurs with more than 11 000 members from all over the world.

I was one of the speakers.

When I summarised the conference and went through the business cards that people had come up and given to me, I could see that I had received concrete invitations to come and speak in 41 (!) different countries from 6 continents. People from South Africa to New Zeeland, from Canada to China had approached me and asked me to come and speak in their country as well.

Let me say that again: Concrete leads from 41 different countries. All from speaking to one audience. One global audience.

And I am now in the process of going through these leads to convert them into bookings.

So if the answer to the question “How do I get to speak more globally” is “speak more at global conferences”, then the follow up question becomes: “So how do I get to speak more at global conferences?”

And the answer to that question is: Make sure you have a great speech that is universal (meaning it will work as well on a Chinese as on an American etc.) And then go speak at local and regional conferences.

If your speech is universal enough the people who organise global conferences are going to hear about you. Because the people who organise the global conferences listen to the people who organise regional and national conferences to find out about great speakers who they can use for the global conference.

It is of course not so easy that this is the ONLY answer to the question “How do I get to speak more internationally”, but it is one piece of the puzzle of how to increase your global foot print as a speaker.

If nothing else, the fact that I got concrete leads from 41 countries today from one conference should in itself inspire you to work towards getting to speak at more global conferences – at least if your goal is to be a global speaker.

Bad Day At Work – Or Why I Am Not A Pilot

Whoever tells you being a global speaker just means a lot of time on airplanes is missing the point.

ABOUT THIS SITE

ProfessionalSpeaking.com is run by Fredrik Haren, a Keynote Speaker whose specialty is to speak at Global and International Conferences around the world.

Through this site, he wants to inspire others to learn more about the job of being a professional speaker by sharing his thoughts on what it means to work as a global, professional speaker.

Fredrik has been speaking professionally for more than 20 years. He has been invited to speak in over 60 countries on 5 continents, and just in the last 12 months, he spoke in 32 different countries. He is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), as well as one of less than 40 CSP Global in the world. He was awarded "Speaker of the Year" in Sweden and selected as one of the "Top 10 Swedish Speakers Ever". He now lives in Singapore.

As an author for over 20 years, Fredrik has written 9 books which have been translated to more than 15 languages and sold in over 60 countries. His book, The Idea Book, was included in "The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.”

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